


Shameless

by dovingbird



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 22:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovingbird/pseuds/dovingbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When his girlfriend takes her Twitter just a little too far, Phil finds a platonic comfort in Elise, no matter how pushed he might feel for something more. Rated for language.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shameless

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a prompt response: "Phil's reaction to his girlfriend posting all kinds of personal things about him/them on twitter. Include Elise somewhere in here cuz I ship them."

Phil slammed the door behind him as he stormed into the mansion, nostrils flaring and hands curled into fists. Hollie, Skylar, and Jessica looked up from where they were polishing off the last pints of ice cream in the house, eyes huge, and Phil glared at them before he continued on his way.

He needed to get away. Needed to get to his bedroom before anybody cornered him. Needed to-  
  
Elise suddenly came out of the bathroom on the right, wrapped in a fluffy bathrobe, and the two jerked apart to prevent a collision. "Whoa, Phil, are you-"  
  
She'd do. He grabbed her wrist and kept his pace down the hall. He thought he wanted to be alone. But somehow, he realized, it was moreso that he wanted to be alone and to have Elise there with him. He didn't want to talk. But he had the feeling that he needed her close.  
  
She stumbled along behind him, keeping her mouth shut like the smart woman she was, and by the time they got to his bedroom, she was keeping his pace. He'd barely opened the door before she stepped inside, ushered him in, and shut the door behind them both.  
  
Phil collapsed face-first onto his bed and heaved a sigh before he growled into his arms. After a few moments of silence, Elise spoke up. "Do you...do you wanna talk about it?"  
  
He didn't reply.  
  
Elise carefully sat on the edge of his bed and, after what he sensed was a moment of hesitation, reached out and gently touched her hand to his back. She smelled soothingly of lavender, freshly showered as she was. When she began to rub his back in wide, confident circles, he immediately felt the tension begin to leave his body.  
  
How lucky he was to have a woman like Elise around to calm him down when Hannah was being a bitch.  
  
Seconds stretched into long minutes, and after a time she lifted her hand and he found himself aching for the warmth of it again. He turned his head on his arms and watched her as she tugged her cell phone out of her bathrobe pocket, nudged her wet hair out of her face, and began typing away. After a few moments of staring at the phone, she furrowed her brow before meeting his eyes. "...did you...and Hannah have a fight?"  
  
He scowled and childishly buried his face in his arms again. "I don't wanna talk about it."  
  
"I don't think you have to." The coolness of her cell phone brushed against his bicep and he quirked a brow as he reached for it.  
  
Twitter was up on the iPhone's screen. It took him a few moments to figure out what he was looking at, but when he did, he felt red hot rage stir in his gut.  
  
Hannah Blackwell, it informed him, had just tweeted something about twelve minutes ago. And it said "Hate it when me and the boy fight. What to do?"  
  
That he might've been able to forgive. He could've gritted his teeth and went with it. But as he unconsciously scrolled further up into her more recent tweets, he realized exactly what she was doing.  
  
Philantic24, she retweeted to, was informed that "he gets in these moods sometimes, haha. No big deal."  
  
J!gg@wu7 found out that "I don't wanna say whose fault it is, but I don't know how to fix it."  
  
The best one was retweeted to his own mother. "Can you call him for me and see if he's still talking to me?"  
  
His phone began vibrating on his nightstand, as if on cue. When Elise reached for it, being the closest one to the stand, he grabbed her wrist again. "Leave it," he growled, never taking his eyes off the iPhone screen.  
  
On and on the retweets went. If she was getting any hate for this fight they were having, she wasn't acknowledging it. She was just slowly and steadily twisting everything.  
  
She was turning his own fans against him.  
  
"What happened?" Elise murmured.  
  
Phil tossed the phone into her lap, utterly aware of just how tempted he was to throw it against the wall instead, and twisted on the bed until his head was resting in her lap. "She's jealous."  
  
Once again after a degree of hesitation, Elise gently touched her hand to his hair, letting it rest there casually. "Of who?"  
  
He met her eyes. "You."  
  
The change in Elise was incredible. Her eyes widened, her cheeks flushed, and she pulled her hand back like she'd been burned. "What?! Why?"  
  
He responded by softly singing, eyes never leaving hers. "But you didn't have to cut me off, make it like it never happened and that we were nothing. And I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger, and that feels so rough."  
  
She finally broke the eye contact, biting her bottom lip with a frown.  
  
"She thinks it's...a little more than an act." He sighed and looked at the ceiling. "And it's not the first time."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly.  
  
"'Cuz it ain't none of your business."  
  
"It involves me."  
  
"It's my damn girlfriend."  
  
Elise's lips thinned. "Playing it up for ratings isn't worth it if it's hurting your relationship, though."  
  
He didn't reply. Elise touched her hand to his hair again, this time brushing her fingers through it companionably.  
  
"We're gonna stop," she murmured. "If they try to stick us together with another duet, we tell them no."  
  
"Why?" Phil furrowed his eyebrows. "I'd rather sing with you than, I don't know, Jessica. Or Skylar."  
  
"Because Hannah's more important than that."  
  
He lay there quietly, trying to figure out if right here, right at this moment, it was true. Finally he opened his mouth. "I don't wanna lose this."  
  
"Lose what?" she asked softly. Her nails brushed against his scalp, tickling pleasantly.  
  
"This friendship we got. I love the hell out of you, Elise. And if Hannah can't accept that I'm gonna be friends with other girls, then maybe I'm not gonna be with her anymore."  
  
Elise shook her head. "You love her, though."  
  
He considered his relationship with Hannah. It was true, he did love her. But it was a softer love now, slowly having lost passion over three years. There were days that he didn't feel like loving her, and those were the hardest to work through. This relationship was no longer a guaranteed certainty in his book. It had become a choice. And he had to wake up every day and make that choice.  
  
He sighed through his nose, tracing the shadows along the ceiling with his eyes. "I do."  
  
"Then you need to talk to her about this. And you go from there." He opened his mouth to speak, but Elise pressed on. "And you need to _listen._ Not judge. Not try to defend yourself. Listen to what she has to say. Okay?"  
  
As prideful as he wanted to be, to say that he  _always_ listened to what Hannah had to say, he kept his mouth shut. He simply nodded.  
  
"Good boy," she murmured, smiling softly. She ran her fingers through his hair one last time before tapping his head. "All right, c'mon, head up. I've gotta go do something about my hair before it's too late."  
  
Phil grinned. "All right, fine." He sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks for, uh...putting up with me."  
  
"Always," she said immediately, not a breath of hesitation in her words this time. "Have a good night, Phil. See you tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah." He let her make it all the way to the door before he cleared his throat. "Hey, uh, Elise?"  
  
She looked over her shoulder, hand on the doorknob. "Mmm?"  
  
"...keep an eye on her Twitter, can you? And..."  
  
She smiled in understanding. "I'll keep you updated."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
She disappeared into the hallway and Phil heaved a sigh, laying back down, this time his head in his pillow. He hesitated. And then he reached for his cell phone and started a new text message, one for Hannah Blackwell.  
  
He'd made a promise to Elise, silent as it had been. And he refused to let her down.


End file.
